Robinhood pushes direct-to-advisor model in RIA referral program

The Robinhood Advisor Network rolling out this week to 5,000 users is designed to connect client prospects directly with individual advisors, which the company says will distinguish itself from the multi-step pipeline friction that is common at other RIA referral programs.

“It is an individual advisor selection, which is what we feel like that next generation wants; that's what they've told us they want. They don't want to go through and have to measure the firm and everything else. They want to go directly to find that advisor, so that is the difference between our platform and all the others,” TradePMR founder Robb Baldwin told InvestmentNews at the custodian’s Synergy conference hosted last week in Washington D.C.

Robinhood Advisor Network (RAN) is starting with 16 independent advisors who will be matched for referrals to a pool of 5,000 potential clients, but Baldwin says there are plans to soon expand to around 60 advisors. Advisors from RIAs such as Grimes & Company and The Mather Group are participating in RAN, which joins the custodian referral marketplace that has been traditionally led by Schwab Advisor Network and Fidelity’s Wealth Advisor Solutions.

“Traditionally the older referral programs have multiple layers of human beings involved. A client shows up to a branch office, meets with someone, then that someone says you're a candidate for an outside advisor, takes them over to the branch manager, who says this is a person who should be associated with an advisor,” said Baldwin. “That branch manager calls a middleman who controls the relationships with the advisory firm, makes the introduction, advisor firm gets it, and they have a person who says, well, let me interview that client and determine which advisor to put them with.”

After answering a few questions about their wealth and life circumstances, referred clients inside the Robinhood app are presented with introductory videos of three or four independent advisors before the user selects which one they want to move forward with. Robinhood users must have at least $250,000 in investable assets to be eligible for RAN,  which charges a 25% fee on the gross revenue an advisor generates from referred clients.

“We're asking them about what life stage they're at. What are they really looking for? Are they looking for tax help, have they just recently come into wealth through inheritance? Really, questions about kind of their lifestyle and what they're looking to get guidance on, and using that to match with the expertise of the advisors,” said Kate Mapstone, TradePMR’s head of RIA strategy.